Eric Fischl on "Second Act"

It's not like I started my first act yet but it's good to be reminded that doing art is a long journey. Getting the first taste of success and recognition is just the beginning.

" They shouldn’t abandon their first thing until they are tired of it, but they must know that their life is not going to just be that first act. There is a second act coming and they should prepare for it. That’s where the real test is. It’s not as big a leap in terms of finding your voice, finding a gallery, getting people interested in what you do. That’s all huge. The second act is subtler, but it can erase you or land you as a major artist."

http://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/eric-fischl-interview

Unsolicited Submissions

http://joannemattera.blogspot.com/2009/11/marketing-mondays-unsolicited.html?m=1

Henri Matisse

An excellent BBC documentary about Matisse. So inspiring!

http://youtu.be/Ob8FWxrKVZY

Career Builder 101

Great tips about how to build an art career: http://youtu.be/6WA0KecvP-g

Tips I like:
1. The more comfortable you are with yourself, the more comfortable you are about putting yourself out there, the more successful you will be.

2. Hit them up four months later. Just keep hitting them up. They're gonna see that you are hungry. As long as your work grow every time you hit them up, eventually they will give you an opportunity.

3. You should be able to explain your art in a nutshell. 

How to Show Your Art at Galleries

A very informative article about how to show your art at galleries,

On Commitment
"They're aware that the payoff is not always immediate, and that if they're going to invest time, money, publicity and wall space in your art, they want to at least see some promise for an evolving, engaging and ongoing narrative. In other words, they look for signs that you're serious about your art, have some sense of a game plan, guiding principle or philosophy, and are committed to being an artist and showing your art for many years to come. There's hardly anything galleries hate more than to back artists who suddenly decide to do something else with their lives and poof off into the ether forever. Vanishing artists and one-hit wonders do not make a gallery look good."

On the Artworks
"They want to hear your whole story, not just today's headlines, but where your journey is taking you, and what drives, motivates and inspires your creative process. Do you have more than one idea? Do you have a vision? Is that vision clear and well defined and articulated? Are you breaking new ground, exploring new territory? Or are you rehashing the past, stuck in a rut, stagnant or backing yourself into a corner? Are you productive and serious about spending time in the studio? Most importantly, do you have a significant body of current work that is complete (or nearly complete), fresh, original and HAS NOT been shown or exhibited elsewhere... or if not, are you capable of creating one by a to-be-determined date or deadline?" 

http://www.artbusiness.com/how_to_show_your_art_at_a_gallery.html

Monotype Printing

Slowly but steadily, I put the negative print I just created through a heavy-duty press while man-powering the machine. I have never felt a stronger connection and intimacy with my artworks. Maybe it is in our nature that the more difficult the process is, the more we appreciate the result.

The negative print is sitting on top of a light box

Negative print of a snowy birth forest

An exciting aspect of monotype print is that you can only get one original copy out of  a negative print (I'm not talking about putting the original print through a copy machine). Once you print it, all the paint on the plate is gone. So no matter how attached you are to the result, you just have to keep moving forward and building on previous images.

Catherine lent me a book about monotype printing at the end of the workshop. I guess I always gave people an impression that I have not learned enough :)

Learn to Paint in One Day

The workshop truly was fun, as long as you don't care about getting messy.

Orange is the new black

The rock&roll superstar Olya Losina

We all became kids at that moment

To find out more about the "Learn to Paint in One Day" workshop I attended, click here.

Whistle Down the Wind

My latest multi-media painting, 4'x6' on panels. "You do your best work when you have nothing to loose." Olya said. Yep, don't think too much. Just work and play.

"Whistle Down the Wind"
4'x6'
multi-media on panel

Workshop

I learned a lot this Saturday attending a workshop taught by German artist Catherine Edlinger-Kunze. Catherine is a very kind and warm person and also an excellent teacher, and her art is astonishingly beautiful.

Picture of Cathrine teaching

The first half of the workshop was devoted to drawing a live model, especially how to draw a gesture in just a few strokes. To illustrate body movement, Catherine took out a white sock with two tennis balls on top of one anther in it. A black center line is visible in the middle of the white sock. We all laughed at this seemingly funny object. "The tennis balls represent the torso and the pelvis." She said as she twisted the balls in different directions. "Look what happened to the center line." Then we started drawing having the image of the tennis balls in mind.

sketch by Layla Wu

I'd never had an easier time capturing body gestures just by understanding how tennis balls move in a sock. "It's important to understand how body parts function." Catherine said, "there's so much more you can show about what's going on with the body." Drawing outline is good, but understanding how the bone structure inside connect with the muscle and the skin took my gestural drawing to a different level.

We moved on to painting a little past noon. Catherine meant to push us all out of our comfort zone but I felt very comfortable in the whole process thanks to my mentor Olya Losina. I never thought I'd be able to paint a figure merely out of my imagination. Catherine helped me every step of the way to solve issues such as the drawing of the feet and the hand. This is what I got after three hours of work.

painting by Layla Wu

It still needs more work but I'm very happy with what I got so far.

Study for a Painting

I brought in a canvas with an underpainting full of eggshells to Olya's class. One of my classmate gave me a firm handshake for the first time since we met "Congratulations for coming up with such a good idea."

I wanted to create a painting/drawing of feet walking on eggshells. To help me visualize the idea, Olya lent me a hand mirror and a small lamp with orange floodlight. Here are a few samples of my feet's "beauty shots".

Each picture screams a story. I told Olya I really liked the last few poses with the feet leaving the ground. "Of the person is leaping," Olya said, "because underneath his feet are eggshells!" Now everything makes perfect sense.

Bill Sharp

I fell in love with Bill Sharp's artworks and felt so inspired! Every little mundane object becomes so extraordinary with his magic touch.

http://billsharp.wordpress.com/

"On the Carpet"

Bill Sharp

"Blue Pitcher with Lemons"

Bill Sharp

Hush Hush

This is my first time taking part in the north county drawing group at A&C Studio. Catherine was very nice and introduced me to a new color called "Cerulean Blue Chrome". She used this color in many of her paintings along with burnt sienna. The studio was filled with the smell of fresh coffee and beautiful light music. The model was lit by warm light from the left, pale studio lights and blue skylight from the top. Three hours went by in the blink of an eye.

Hello Goldfish

A painting inspired by the fish tank we set up over the weekend. I found myself obssessed and unable to stop staring at those poor frightened goldfish. "In a month, " Monk said "they will swim to the top when you get close." "just like the movie! " I yelled excitedly " in "Children of Heaven", when the boy dips his feet into the pond after failing to win a pair of shoes for his sister, a group of goldfish swim to the top and surrounded his blister-covered feet as if caressing them and soothing his pain.

Inside Great Masters' Minds

Great art lessons from art forgers. The forgers are not only excellent craftsmen, but also brilliant psychoanalysts and art critics, and of course criminals.

http://www.artnews.com/2013/11/20/fakers-fakes-fake-fakers/

Excerpt from the article:

How to Draw like Poussin?

Drawing by Nicolas Poussin

“Even Poussin did not learn how to draw like Poussin without years of practice. For just as no one could play the violin in imitation of [a master], unless they had first learned to play it rather well, so it is that no one can draw an imitation of a master draughtsman without being a pretty good draughtsman himself. Long years of practice added to arguably a solid art school background had given me proficiency in the art, and I could at least claim to understand the visual language Poussin used. But now I had to learn his dialect, his accent, his pitch, his almost imperceptible inflections and mannerisms, subtleties that he himself may not have been aware of.”  Eric Hebborn 


How to draw like Matisse?

Drawing by Henri Matisse

“With Matisse, for example, I had to be particularly careful. At the beginning . . . I used a very easy, flowing line for a Matisse drawing. Because he had, I thought, a very simple line. And then suddenly later on I realized that his hand was not as secure as mine. Obviously, when he stopped work to glance up at his model, his line stopped, too, with just that tiny little bit of uncertainty. Where I went very securely on, Matisse was hesitant, insecure. I had to correct that; I had to learn to hesitate also. "  Elmyr de Hory

Creation of Adam

Good images touch people at the time; great images touch people through the ages.

"Creation of Adam"
Michelangelo

We came across some version of this iconic image at some point of our lives. Most recently I saw it on the wall of a local realtor's office. As a proud Italian American,  he had photoshoped his face into the picture as Adam.

I'm not religious in any sense but "Creation of Adam" moves me deeply every time I look at it. Aren't we all looking for inspiration, redemption, hope and transcendence? As a skilled storyteller, Michelangelo chose to freeze the very moment when the two hands are about to touch but have not yet touched, the moment when a human being is about to become truly alive. It generates great anticipation among the viewers, make us anxiously wonder what would happen next.

That's why great art never ages. It invites the viewers to be part of the creation, to interpret the meaning contained in the void in-between the two fingers.

Nothing in Life Goes Waste

                                                                   "Blue Monday"
                                                                         20"x16"
                                                                       Layla Wu

I thought of Henri Matisse when I was working on "Blue Monday".

Before leaving for Moscow, Olya handed out copies of Matisse's letter to Mr. Henry Clifford. I read the letter a couple of times and forgot all about it. However nothing in life goes waste, what we saw, heard and felt, will somehow find a way into our current work. When I was in front of a live model days later deciding on the composition , a few sentences from the letter struck me out of nowhere. "I have always tried to hide my own efforts and wished my works to have the lightness and joyousness of a springtime which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost." Matisse wrote in the letter. "It's only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color as description, that is, but as a means of intimate expression." At that moment, the thought of Matisse gave me permissions to be bold, bold enough to trust and follow my instinct. I changed my position of the easel and rearranged my setup so I could capture the model and her mirrored image. "Then he (the young artist) can hope that all the images, even all the symbols, which he uses, will be the reflection of his love for things, " Matisse continued, "a reflection in which he can have confidence if he has been able to carry out his education, with purity, and without lying to himself. He will place it in accordance with a natural design, unformulated and completely concealed, that will spring directly from his feelings..."

Today is a remarkable day - I start to appreciate Henri Matisse.

                                                       "Odalisque with Magnolias"
                                                                  Henri Matisse
                                                                 Oil on Canvas

The Workshop

Maite's workshop was a great success! I learned so much at this workshop and had lots of fun creating artworks with contemporary art techniques. Here's a piece I did during the workshop.

For this exercise I used a photo from photographer Sage Sohier. I had the exact same hair style when I was eight years old, an age when we came to understand what joy and sorrow are.

Special thanks to Losina Art Center for providing such an excellent opportunity for learning, exploring and experimenting!

Mix Until Done

I'm really looking forward to taking the workshop with artist Maite Agahnia!

(artworks by Maite Agahnia)

I was involved in promoting and marketing the workshop and got to meet with the artist in person ahead of time. Here's the video I produced for the workshop.

Video: Workshop with Maite Agahnia

"The Only Thing I Forgot"

My painting "The Only Thing I Forgot " won the first place in Off Track Gallery's monthly show!

Paul Kauffman Solo Show

Out of curiosity and respect, I went to Paul Kauffman's solo show. It turned out to be one of the most joyful and inspiring Saturday afternoons I had ever spent!

Paul Kauffman's artwork1

Paul Kauffman's artwork2

Paul Kauffman's artwork3

Paul Kauffman (left) and Layla Wu (right)

I'm truly amazed by how much one can achieve if he devotes himself to the things he loves. I met Paul when he first started taking classes from Olya Losina a few months ago and witnessed his speedy transformation into a professional artist. I understand the struggles he has to go through and sacrifices he has to make in order to be a successful artist.

Paul's success showed us that it can be done, if only you have faith and are willing to do whatever it takes.